1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus equipped with a transfer job performing device that performs a transfer job for transferring input image information to at least one destination, a transfer job managing method, a program for implementing the method, and a storage medium storing the program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, digital multifunction apparatuses having a plurality of functions have been developed. Some of those digital multifunction apparatuses have a copying function, a printer function, a scanner function, a server-like transfer function, etc (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2003-219078, for example).
The digital multifunction apparatuses are so-called platforms capable of converting information on sheets used in offices into digital image data, and vice versa.
In offices, various measures are taken to ensure security. For example, output, reading, external transfer, etc. of secret documents using the digital multifunction apparatuses are typically prohibited or limited so as to prevent the leakage of the secret documents. However, there may be a case where secret documents are output, read, or externally transferred due to an error in operation by an operator.
In particular, it is necessary to minimize the likelihood that secret documents are unnecessarily leaked out, and to this end, transfer jobs for externally transferring document images have to be satisfactorily managed. Accordingly, for example, it can be envisaged that each time a transfer job is performed, an image transferred by the transfer job as well as history information indicative of the execution result of the transfer job is stored as part of history information in a storage device, so that the execution result of the transfer job is managed using the history information. According to this transfer job managing method, however, an image is stored in the storage device each time a transfer job is performed, and hence as the number of transfer jobs increases, history information stored in the storage device rapidly increases. Thus, to carry out the transfer job managing method, the storage device needs to have a very large storage capacity, and therefore it takes much cost to manage transfer jobs.